How To Rein In High Cost of Higher Ed?

Students are borrowing a lot more to go to college than their parents did. Nationwide, student debt is greater than any other household debt except mortgages.

Debt seems particularly high in Connecticut. At $30,191, Connecticut's students owe more on average than students in all but five other states, according to the Institute for College Access and Success. (The report, however, may be unfair to Connecticut: It didn't include students at for-profit colleges, who tend to have more debt, and those schools are concentrated in the Sun Belt.)

High student debt isn't necessarily bad. Connecticut students are obviously intent on pursuing higher education if they're borrowing so much for it. College can be a terrific investment that boosts earnings for a lifetime, depending on the major and the college.

And yet young people struggling with loans are less likely to have the money or the confidence to start up new businesses, buy homes, have children. That isn't good for any nation.

Apply The Brakes

We applaud U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrats, for championing bills in Congress to ease the student loan burden. Just helping students manage their debt, though, isn't going to slow the zooming price of education. Tuition at four-year public colleges has more than tripled in three decades, going up faster than inflation, and much of the money has been spent on such non-classroom frills as athletic centers.

That's where the Higher Education Act can help. The nearly 50-year-old law governs federal loans and grants, including Pell and Stafford aid. It's up for reauthorization this year.

First signed into law in 1965, the law has been used by the U.S. Department of Education to call schools to account for big increases in tuition and to pressure for-profit colleges into lowering their student loan default rate. Reauthorization of the law — not done since 2008 — could be the vehicle to slow higher education costs further and protect people from crippling debt.

The Shopping Sheet

The true cost of higher education is often poorly understood by high school students, although it's a big commitment, almost as big as buying a home.

The Obama administration has trotted out a "financial aid shopping sheet" that it's asking colleges and universities to offer so that students understand the implications of this serious financial decision. The sheet lets students evaluate, without marketing hype, just what the institution will cost. To their credit, about half the schools in the U.S. are participating, including the University of Connecticut. (Students, take a lesson from those that aren't.)

The sheet shows show just how much a student will pay yearly for things such as tuition and books, what aid the student may be eligible for, what the school's graduation and loan default rates are, and what the typical student borrows to go to that school — all essential information.

The shopping sheet could be even more helpful if, in addition to showing students how much they can borrow, it recommended a borrowing limit.

The Obama administration is also proposing tying the $130 billion in student aid that the federal government gives out every year to how well colleges and universities do in moderating student debt and school costs. That's not popular with schools, of course, but it's fair to ask of them, given how much taxpayer money goes into higher education aid.

To be fair, many institutions are trying to hold the line on costs. In-state tuition at four-year public institutions has gone up just 2.9 percent nationwide this school year, the lowest in 40 years.

The UConn Foundation is trying to raise $150 million in scholarship funds over five years to ease the burden on students and taxpayers. That's smart. The state has been generous to its public colleges and universities, but the state's budget is showing a lot of red ink in coming years. Like students, it can't do more than it can afford to.